U.S. Disavows Guantanamo Suicide Comment

Posted on Jun 12, 2006

The Bush administration distanced itself from a remark by a senior State Department official who called the suicide of three detainees at the Cuba detention center a public relations move.

VOA News:

The Bush administration distanced itself Monday from a remark by a senior U.S. official calling the suicide of three prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center a public relations move. The State Department said the choice of words was unfortunate.

The State Department has delivered an indirect rebuke to one of its own officials, with a spokesman disavowing her depiction of the Guantanamo deaths as a public relations stunt, and stressing that the United States has serious concern about suicides at the facility.

The suicides of two Saudi Arabian and one Yemeni national early Saturday were the first inmate deaths since the United States began holding terrorism suspects there in 2002, and they spurred renewed criticism of the controversial facility.